Ghosts

There are some constants in history, the most fundamental being the idea that ghosts are the spirits of dead people returned to the land of the living. Depending on different cultural contexts, ghosts are feared, worshipped, propitiated, or avoided. The philosophical and creative literature of ancient Rome and Greece are full of descriptions of ghosts as well as their origin and purpose. The Reformation of the early sixteenth century raised the profile of ghosts as a contested theological concept. Protestant theology in all its guises was clear that good Protestants should not believe in ghosts. The notion that untimely death generates restless ghosts is an ancient and global concept. Child and infant ghosts represent another obvious category of untimely dead. In America today battlefield tourism is big business, with many thousands drawn to such sites as Gettysburg because of their ghostly reputations.